Friday, 19 April 2013

Baby and Toddler Swim Class

Every Friday afternoon I wake Sera early from her nap, force her to eat a banana and pack her into the car, rain or shine, to head off to her 'Cuccioli' swimming class. It's a pain, it's exhausting, it's in the middle of nowhere (well, not in the middle of nowhere, in Linate airport's sports centre CRAL), its at an inconvenient time of week and I always feel annoyed right before we go but we LOVE it. Or, to be precise, she loves it and I love that she loves it.

Now she's at that adorable phase where she can anticipate things when I tell her in advance about them, remember that I told her hours later and then tell her daddy about what happened when we were there. Swimming is a favourite topic of discussion.

We started the course just after her first round of vaccinations when she was a little over 4 months. Boy was she so sweet! It took me a lot longer to get used to getting in the water with her than it did for her and she was absolutely a natural. I had to get over my fear of accidentally drowning her by slipping or something. (I actually still have that fear even though she now runs around the pool by herself and happily swims underwater completely unaided by me) The staff at the pool we go to are fantastic and really help on a psychological level as well.

Sera seems to be a bit of a prodigy in the pool. She's the only one in her class who dives under the water to pick up the diving fish toys and she has no fear about jumping off the edge, or running, ful speed down a floating mattress.

Maybe I'll be able to live out my dreams of becoming a synchronised swmmer through Sera one day! Do you think it's too soon to think about it?